Pedagogies of Public Memory ─ Teaching Writing and Rhetoric at Museums, Memorials, and Archives

The creation, maintenance, revision, and destruction of public memory is inherently a multimodal rhetorical process, and architecture, objects, images, sound, and texts are among the persuasive resources that can be marshalled at sites of public memory. The production of public memory is an important occasion of both public communication and civic engagement, and involving students in the meaningful generation of public memory can help them develop as engaged citizens. This volume outlines pedagogical projects to the (re)production of public memory as a way to advance students’ writing and rhetorical repertoire. The chapters initiate a new phase in the study of public memory by moving beyond rhetorical analyses of museums, archives, and memorials. The focus in this collection is instead on the rich pedagogical and public work that can take place when faculty and students collaborate with museum founders, curators, exhibit designers, archivists, librarians, and others.

Jane Greer is Associate Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, USA. She is the editor ofGirls and Literacy in America (2003), and her scholarship has been published inCollege English, College Composition and Communication, English Journal,Women’s Studies Quarterly, and numerous edited collections.

Laurie Grobman is Professor of English and Women's Studies at Pennsylvania State University Berks, USA. She is the 2014 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Outstanding Baccalaureate Colleges Professor of the Year. Grobman has published two books, Multicultural Hybridity: Transforming American Literary Scholarship and Pedagogy (2007) andTeaching at the Crossroads: Cultures and Critical Perspectives in Literature by Women of Color (2001), and editedUndergraduate Research in English Studies (2010) and On Location: Theory and Practice in Classroom-Based Writing Tutoring (2005).